Health Information Compliance Alert

If you are counting on an extension of the Jan. 1, 2012 deadline for 5010 compliance "you will probably be very disappointed," warns Cyndee Weston, executive director of the American Medical Billing Association in Davis, Okla.

Use the following checklist written by Weston to get your practice ready for Jan. 1:

• Call your software vendor to find out if they have completed the update for your billing software program to accommodate the required changes. If they have not, find out when it will be available because time is running out.
• Check with your clearinghouse to see if they have already tested claims with any other users of your software. If they have, there is a good chance your software has an update available to accommodate the required changes. You need to begin testing claims as soon as possible. Be prepared to work through issues and re-test if necessary.» »
• Contact your largest payers to find out if they have any issue you need to be aware of or if they have any contingency plans and what those might be.
• Consider submitting as many transactions as possible before December 31, 2011 using your current system. If you have any backlogs of claims, get them in now!
• Consider getting a line of credit established with your lending institution.
• If you experience problems with testing or getting claims paid after the January 1st deadline, drop your claims to paper until the problem has been resolved.